Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM) offers unprecedented design freedom and the possibility to produce lightweight optimised components that are impossible to make with traditional techniques; or bespoke components that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive if produced in small volumes. Despite the significant progress made in AM, the surface roughness of parts produced by this method continues to be an issue.
Rough surface finish on AM parts causes wear, corrosion and fatigue, micro-cracks, poor tolerances, and is aesthetically displeasing. These negative characteristics often outweigh the positive ones of unlimited complexity of shapes and weight reduction benefits. Post-processing finishing methods exist for reducing roughness, but these can be costly and have limited effectiveness, particularly in relation to complex, high surface roughness components. As a result, the application of AM parts in industry is being constricted, particularly in the aerospace and medical industries, where the surface finish of components is highly critical.
We have developed PALMS (Plasma Additive Layer Manufacture Smoothing), an innovative cost-effective macro-polishing solution based on novel electrochemical plasma technology. The macro finish (10-50µm) AM parts are rapidly treated in a highly controlled manner in less than 20 minutes, leaving a uniform, smooth micro-finish (
Rough surface finish on AM parts causes wear, corrosion and fatigue, micro-cracks, poor tolerances, and is aesthetically displeasing. These negative characteristics often outweigh the positive ones of unlimited complexity of shapes and weight reduction benefits. Post-processing finishing methods exist for reducing roughness, but these can be costly and have limited effectiveness, particularly in relation to complex, high surface roughness components. As a result, the application of AM parts in industry is being constricted, particularly in the aerospace and medical industries, where the surface finish of components is highly critical.
We have developed PALMS (Plasma Additive Layer Manufacture Smoothing), an innovative cost-effective macro-polishing solution based on novel electrochemical plasma technology. The macro finish (10-50µm) AM parts are rapidly treated in a highly controlled manner in less than 20 minutes, leaving a uniform, smooth micro-finish (
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More information & hyperlinks
| Web resources: | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/760519 |
| Start date: | 01-07-2017 |
| End date: | 28-02-2021 |
| Total budget - Public funding: | 2 482 040,75 Euro - 1 953 975,00 Euro |
Cordis data
Original description
Additive manufacturing (AM) offers unprecedented design freedom and the possibility to produce lightweight optimised components that are impossible to make with traditional techniques; or bespoke components that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive if produced in small volumes. Despite the significant progress made in AM, the surface roughness of parts produced by this method continues to be an issue.Rough surface finish on AM parts causes wear, corrosion and fatigue, micro-cracks, poor tolerances, and is aesthetically displeasing. These negative characteristics often outweigh the positive ones of unlimited complexity of shapes and weight reduction benefits. Post-processing finishing methods exist for reducing roughness, but these can be costly and have limited effectiveness, particularly in relation to complex, high surface roughness components. As a result, the application of AM parts in industry is being constricted, particularly in the aerospace and medical industries, where the surface finish of components is highly critical.
We have developed PALMS (Plasma Additive Layer Manufacture Smoothing), an innovative cost-effective macro-polishing solution based on novel electrochemical plasma technology. The macro finish (10-50µm) AM parts are rapidly treated in a highly controlled manner in less than 20 minutes, leaving a uniform, smooth micro-finish (
Status
CLOSEDCall topic
FTIPilot-01-2016Update Date
11-05-2024
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Interoperability (ICT)
